Author: Arabian Media staff

ElevenLabs has made a name for itself building realistic AI voices.   What started as two Polish engineers annoyed by terrible movie dubbing has grown into a profitable company now valued at $6.6 billion, doubling from just nine months ago. The company recently announced a $100 million tender offer led by Sequoia and ICONIQ, with participation from a16z and others, as its tech powers everything from Fortnite characters to customer service bots and goes toe-to-toe with OpenAI to become the default voice of AI.  Today on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, we’re bringing you a conversation with CEO Mati Staniszewski from this year’s Disrupt, where he made a surprising admission: he thinks…

Unacademy, once one of India’s best-known edtech startups, may now be worth less than $500 million, 85% less than its pandemic-era peak valuation, as the company undergoes a steep reset and explores merger and acquisition options. In a detailed note posted on X on Wednesday marking the startup’s 10th anniversary, Unacademy’s CEO Gaurav Munjal said the startup’s valuation has fallen sharply from its $3.5 billion peak three years ago to less than $500 million today. He also confirmed the startup is in M&A talks. India’s edtech landscape has fractured since the pandemic, when the sector saw a rare moment of…

A new helper has arrived at the North Pole in recent years: AI. Tavus, the AI startup that creates digital replicas using voice and face cloning technology, has launched its AI Santa experience for the second year in a row. This allows parents and children to video chat with a virtual version of the jolly old Saint Nick. After signing up for a free account, users can interact with AI Santa via text, phone, or video chat. Users can tell AI Santa what they want for Christmas, share their holiday plans, and find out if they’re on the naughty or…

Image credit: Getty Images An Air India investigation into why one of its Airbus planes conducted eight commercial flights without an airworthiness permit found “systemic failures”, with the airline admitting it needed to do better on compliance, a company document showed. An Airbus A320 flew passengers between New Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Hyderabad on November 24 to 25 without the mandatory Airworthiness Review Certificate, or ARC, a key permit issued annually by the regulator after a plane passes safety and compliance checks, according to the document. Air India found engineers and pilots had failed to check the aircraft’s documents and…

Fertility startup Inito has raised $29 million in Series B funding to scale its at-home health diagnostics platform and use AI-designed antibodies to unlock new kinds of at-home tests.  When the company launched its first fertility monitor in 2021, its goal was to make quantitative fertility hormone testing possible at home.  While standard at-home ovulation tests predict fertile days by tracking estrogen and Luteinizing hormone (LH), they don’t measure the hormone that confirms your ovulation, which is progesterone metabolite PdG. Inito allows women to measure estrogen, LH, progesterone (PdG), and FSH on a single test strip. Inito’s AI models interpret…

Paramount Skydance’s addition of three Gulf sovereign wealth funds to the cast of its $108bn hostile bid for Warner Bros Discovery WBD.O marks a relatively rare alliance among the states as they build their own entertainment industries. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF,) Abu Dhabi’s L’imad Holding Company, and the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) have agreed to back the deal, Paramount PSKY.O said on Monday. Paramount also has backing from Affinity Partners, started by Jared Kushner, which has investments from funds in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The decision to join forces on a single bid and grab a share of some of Hollywood’s crown jewels underscores…

The National Centre of Meteorology (NCM) has issued a detailed weather report covering the period from the evening of 12 December through 19 December, indicating a spell of unstable conditions across the UAE. According to the NCM, the country is being influenced by the extension of a surface low-pressure system accompanied by an upper-level low-pressure system that will deepen and weaken at intervals throughout the week. The system is expected to generate varying cloud formations along with a chance of scattered rainfall occurring intermittently. Wind patterns will fluctuate, the NCM said, shifting between southeasterly and northeasterly, and occasionally turning northwesterly.…

George Naddaf, managing director of eToro MENA/Image: Supplied Trading and investing platform eToro has unveiled its new UAE-Economy Smart Portfolio, giving retail investors worldwide direct exposure to leading companies listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) and Dubai Financial Market (DFM). George Naddaf, managing director of eToro MENA, said: “The UAE is one of the fastest-expanding economies in the world, supported by strong GDP growth, government reform, and growing non-oil sectors. Local companies, particularly in banking, telecoms, and energy, are known for their attractive dividend yields which are often among the highest in emerging markets.” He added: “Dubai’s and…

The Dubai Land Department (DLD), in partnership with Dubai Holding Community Management, has approved the emirate’s first-ever three-year fixed service fees for the Palm Jumeirah Master community—a move aimed at strengthening financial stability and transparency across jointly owned properties (JOPs). Under the new mechanism, management companies of JOPs can now submit and secure approval for a three-year service-fee budget through the ‘Mollak’ system, while still retaining the option to continue with the traditional one-year model. The initiative is designed to provide greater predictability for owners and investors and enable management firms to engage in longer-term operational contracts with service providers.…

Image: Supplied Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) has announced its forthcoming acquisition of KAS Eupen, the historic Belgian football club currently competing in the Challenger Pro League. The move expands QSI’s global sports portfolio, which includes majority ownership of Paris Saint-Germain, a minority stake in Sporting Clube de Braga, and wider investments across padel, motorsports, basketball, art and entertainment. QSI has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the full acquisition of KAS Eupen, subject to regulatory approvals. The agreement includes the immediate takeover of the club’s sporting operations, with QSI set to assume full operational control of all sporting, commercial,…